She Talks To Angels
by Scarlett Masquerade
Summary: An angsty song fic featuring The Black Crowes. Nellie's story. Drugs and infant death.


_**This is an excellent song. Go out and listen to it and love it and buy it and put it on your iPod and listen to it every day. (To copyright people) See, I'm endorsing the song! People will buy it! I'm not breaking any laws! No, don't take me to jail! Nooooo...**_

She Talks To Angels

Ben wrinkled his nose. Pungent smoke filled the narrow hallway to Nellie's room, reaching nauseating fingers down his throat. He knocked once on the door.

_She never mentions the word addiction_

_In certain company_

Nellie answered the door and quickly shut it behind her, eyes rimmed with red.

"Hey, Ben," she said tiredly.

"Your parents burn something?" he asked. "What's that smell?" Nellie gave him a piercing look.

"They aren't my parents. I don't have any parents."

_Yes, she'll tell you she's an orphan  
After you meet her family_

He looked at her oddly, but she brushed past him and walked briskly down the hall. He trailed after, confused by her unnaturally cold behavior.

That was the last time he talked to her. That was the day he met Lucy.

_She paints her eyes as black as night now_

_Pulls those shades down tight_

After the wedding, he would try to talk to Nellie. But she looked straight through him. He saw the brutal looks of hatred she gave Lucy, but couldn't understand why. They had never been more than friends, like brother and sister.

Had they?

_Yeah, she gives a smile when the pain comes_

_'Cause the pain gonna make everything all right_

One day, he smelled the same putrid smell that marked the day he had lost Nellie forever. He went looking for the source, and found Nellie blowing opium smoke out through her mouth. She gave him a terrible smile before shutting the door in his face.

_Says she talks to angels_

_They call her out by her name_

_She talks to angels_

_Says they call her out by name_

When Nellie married Albert, the opium stench that had always clung to her faded and finally disappeared. She began talking to Benjamin again and the looks she had given Lucy were rare now. She was always by Albert's side, always touching him, losing herself in his eyes.

Her stomach began rounding out, pushing the limits of her dresses.

_She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket_

_She wears a cross around her neck_

The time came for the baby to come, but there was no child. Just a mess of blood.

_The hair is from a little boy_

_The cross is someone she has not met- not yet_

Benjamin was arrested soon afterwards. During those long, sweltering nights, all he could see was Nellie's delicate fingers clutching a cross necklace and tears falling onto the dead baby boy's head. He already had dark auburn curls.

He couldn't see Lucy's face at all.

_Says she talks to angels_

_Says they all know her name_

_Oh yeah, she talks to angels_

_Says they call her out by her name_

When he came back, such a different man than the one who had left on that ship, there was one thread of permanence. Nellie Lovett had not moved. She was still there, in the very same shop. When the hope of having Lucy back had dissolved before his eyes, it was like a fog had lifted. Nellie's shape was razor-sharp in the vacuum it had left, the only thing keeping him from following Lucy.

_She don't know no lover_

_None that I ever seen_

It killed Sweeney to see her so alone and unhappy. It hurt even more that he couldn't bring himself to help her the way she wanted. He still couldn't see her as anything more than a beloved sister.

_Now to her that ain't nothing_

_But to me, yeah me_

_It's everything_

Every day, his anger built. Anger at everything. The Judge. Lucy. Nellie. And himself. He expended it by killing random strangers, the anger fading slightly under the smooth slice of a razor, the wash of swift rubies over his hands. But it wasn't enough.

_She paints her eyes as black as night now_

_Pulls those shades down tight_

Time and his indifference were pulling Nellie closer to him each day. He couldn't bear to see the hope in her eyes, the hope that with Lucy out of the way, she could have a chance. And when her lies came into the harsh spotlight of his judgment, something snapped.

She was causing him pain now, along with herself. He didn't want to have to see that hope one more day.

He pushed his only real friend away, somewhere he would never have to look at her again. As he watched the flames consume her, he was shaken by her expression.

_Oh yeah, there's a smile when the pain comes_

_The pain gonna make everything all right, all right yeah_

He stumbled back over to what he thought had been his dream. Only in the absence of his true dream had he come to realize what Lucy was: an empty shell. Nellie was the only one who could have possibly understood the magnitude of his suffering. And by understanding it, she could have cured it.

Now, of course, it was too late.

His face looked exactly like Nellie's had when the life bled from his neck, covering his empty dreams, and carrying him to Nellie.

_She talks to angels,  
Says they call her out by her name  
Oh yeah, yeah, angels  
Call her out by her name  
Oh, angels  
They call her out by her name  
Oh, she talks to angels  
They call her out  
Yeah, they call her out  
Don't you know that they call her out by her name_

_**Wow, that was depressing. Anyway, review and tell me what you think of my first song-fic. It probably needs improvements.**_


End file.
